Public adds online input to choose which emblem should be on redesigned website

Families in the district can expect a website that is more user-friendly in January, andtoday, trustees will select a new VUSD logo.

“One of the projects I’ve been working on since I started in July is to improve our district website,” Superintendent Devin Vodicka said Tuesday. “If you’ve been to our district website, you would see why.”

Vodicka, 38, grew up familiar with computers and has embraced social media as a way of keeping people informed about VUSD since coming to the district from Carlsbad Unified last summer.

Followers of his Twitter account may receive several daily tweets from the superintendent, who recently asked people to go online to help select a new logo for the district.

Also scheduled for the meeting, newly elected Trustee Rich Alderson will attend his first meeting since winning the Nov. 6 election to replace Steve Lilly, who did not seek re-election after eight years on the board.

The district recently adopted new values, visions and mission statements, and Vodicka said the values statement’s emphasis on collaboration led to soliciting public comments about the proposed logos.

Vodicka said about 400 people had voted on the proposed logos as of Tuesday. People can go to
vistaunified.blogspot.com to give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to the logos, which include three that incorporate the image of a wave.

There was no clear winner on Tuesday, but there was a probable loser. More than three-quarters of voters did not like option three, a blue logo that depicts the right side of the “V” as crashing waves.

Vodicka said the waves are more than just a reference to the district’s proximity to the coast.

At his first administration meeting in early August, Vodicka said district officials envisioned “wave” as an acronym for “We Are Vista Every day.”

The new logo will replace one that has the words “Vista Unified School District” surrounding a stick-figure drawing of a child bending over an open book.

Or at least that’s what it appears to be to some people.

“I think it’s supposed to be a child reading,” Vodicka said about the logo. “I’ve heard different interpretations.”

The new proposed logos were submitted by School Loop, a company that serves about 20 percent of school districts in California.

Vodicka said the company offered to produce the logos while it was updating the district website.

Vodicka said the district’s website —
www.vusd.k12.ca.us — was considered cutting-edge several years ago, but its method of uploading material is limited and dated today.

“It’s an old approach to building websites, back when you had one webmaster for the whole organization,” he said about the platform.

The new platform will allow department heads to upload material to the site in real time, which the superintendent said will increase its content and make it more meaningful.

The new site will make it easier for parents to find information about their children’s schools, and it eventually will be linked to all teachers’ individual Web pages, Vodicka said.